What's up with the trash bags?

I spotted it again this week, just as sure as the swallows return to Capistrano and the snow birds flock to Florida and Arizona.

A professional athlete walking through the locker room or the parking lot of the team's complex hauling a large trash bag with all his personal belongings. You know, the last game has been played, player cleans out locker and takes his stuff home. When it comes to end-of-season photos, there's nothing better.

But why - WHY? - are all those football/baseball/hockey/basketball players using a plain black trash bag? This isn't garbage; it's the stuff they want to keep and probably bring back to their lockers next season ... and haul it away again after the season.

In an era of commercialism and branding gone rampant, it's hard to believe no one has jumped on this opportunity to put their name/logo on those bags. That way, Shonn Greene is pitching something in the photo that ran in The Gazette sports section on Tuesday (and is on this blog). Could be a sports bar, a candy bar, a new car. It could even be - gasp - the company that makes those trash bags whose name will be omitted here because they haven't paid me anything to put their name in my blog (only  kidding, ethics police).

I remember once asking a Tampa Bay Buccaneer player as he stuffed dirty clothes, deodorant sticks and dozens of football shoes in one of those bags at the end of another dismal season why he didn't bring in a duffel bag or even a box for his stuff. He stared at me the same way he stared at me when I asked earlier that season about his four interceptions in a game.

I don't want anyone out there thinking I'm an obsessive-compulsive type of person who can't stand the thought of throwing personal stuff haphazardly in a garbage bag.

I just know an excellent marketing opportunity when I see one. Hey, maybe I can get a bunch of plain black bags and write "Read Pugliese's Points" in large, white letters, ship them to all those teams whose seasons are over for their players' use and spread the word about my blog.

I even could add a kicker: "The perfect place for garbage."